Money stored in Venmo and other payment apps could be vulnerable, financial watchdog warns

By KEN SWEET
AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Customers of Venmo, PayPal and CashApp should not store their money with those apps for the long term because the funds may not be covered by deposit insurance. That’s according to a warning from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Thursday. The alert comes several weeks after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank. Those institutions experienced bank runs after fearful customers with uninsured deposits pulled their money en masse. Money stored on a payment app is not being held in a traditional bank account. So, if there is an event similar to a bank run with the payment apps, those funds may not be protected.